


Shattered

by st_mick



Series: Niffler [13]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Torchwood
Genre: Always a tradeoff, CoE dialogue, Fix-it/Break something else, Gray's a bastard, Heavy Angst, I hated that episode, M/M, Portkeys are handy, Sorry Not Sorry, Strategic edit of Exit Wounds, Who am I kidding - it's a complete rewrite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-09
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-11-14 04:14:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18045260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/st_mick/pseuds/st_mick
Summary: A routine call-out is anything but as explosions meant to take out the team rock the abandoned warehouse they're investigating.  Ianto's magic proves helpful.  Luna's vision gives them a fighting chance against the hell that's been carefully planned to punish Jack.  But the revelation that someone close to Jack is a wizard gives Gray another means of hurting his brother.





	Shattered

The SUV slid to a halt and the four members of the team who had bothered to show up for work that morning exited the vehicle quickly.  Ianto left Gwen a voicemail message and texted their location as Toshiko scanned the abandoned building before them.  “Not a species we’ve encountered before,” she said.

Jack told them to split up, and each headed for the building.  Ianto and Owen checked out either end of the building on the upper level.  Likewise, Jack and Toshiko searched either end of the lower level.  They were quietly checking in on the comms when they all spotted the devices.  Ianto saw the digital counter go from seven seconds to six.

He grabbed is wand and in his mind he reached out to Toshiko and apparated to her, then from her to Owen, and then outside.  He was about to go back for Jack, but Toshiko snatched his wand from his hand and Owen held him back as the four devices exploded, along with one other.

“No!” he shouted, Owen still holding him back.

“It’s too late,” Owen shouted.  “Ianto, you’ll be killed, and he’ll come back.  Just calm down!”

“You don’t understand,” Ianto’s body went limp as he watched the building tremble in the aftermath of the explosions.

Just then, they heard the SUV start.  With a feral growl, Ianto grabbed his wand away from Toshiko.  As the SUV began to speed away, he raised his arms, looking almost like a manic conductor commanding a symphony.  Owen and Tosh stumbled back as a tidal wave of dirt rose up in front of the SUV, towering over it and forcing it to come to a sudden halt.  The wave was still, waiting for whoever was in the SUV to make their next move.  The vehicle stopped, and there was a flash of golden light from the cabin.

Ianto allowed the dirt to settle back to the ground.  “SUV is empty, now,” he said.

“How can you tell?”

Ianto shrugged.  “Probably the legilimency.  Same as I was able to apparate to you two, even though I didn’t know the building.”  He closed his eyes, reaching for Jack, hoping it would work, even if Jack hadn’t survived the blast.  He opened his eyes and smiled, then disapparated. 

“I don’t think I like apparition,” Toshiko said shakily.

“Well, I bloody love anything that keeps me from being blown up.”

“I take your point,” she smiled shakily.

“He’s going to get himself killed, trying to save Jack from dying and reviving.”

“He knows how painful it is,” Tosh said.  “He can’t stand to see Jack in pain.”

Just then, Ianto apparated back with Jack.  He sat on the ground, cradling his lover in his arms and crooning softly to him, wiping the dust and dirt from his face.  Owen and Tosh looked on, sparing a glance for Gwen and Rhys, who had just shown up.

“And where the hell were you?” Owen sniped.

“I overslept,” Gwen said defensively.  “What happened?” she gasped, running towards Ianto and Jack.

Tosh stepped in front of her, blocking her from interfering.  “Five explosive devices.  One for each of us.  Ianto was able to apparate us out of the building, but there was only time for him to get Owen and me out.”

Rhys’ eyes were round and shocked.  “Oh my God, is he…?”

Just then, Jack gasped back to life.

Rhys jumped back and pointed hysterically.  “He was dead!”

Tosh raised an eyebrow at Gwen, who went to calm Rhys down as Ianto whispered to Jack and rocked him, soothing his way back.  Jack clung to Ianto for several moments, and Ianto gave him an update as he began pulling himself together.  As he stood, he pointed at Rhys.  “What is he doing here?” he asked Gwen.

“I was late.  He gave me a lift,” she said.

Jack’s vortex manipulator beeped.  Jack opened it and pressed a few buttons.  John Hart appeared.

“Oh, no,” Ianto groaned.

“Ooh, déjà vu.  Or did I say that already?” John’s image taunted.  He went on to show Jack his long lost brother, shackled, and threaten to tear Jack’s world apart.

As they made their way to the SUV, Tosh looked at her PDA.  “I’m getting readings of rift activity all over the city.  Major rift flares at St. Helen’s Hospital, the police headquarters, and the central IT server station.”

Gwen’s phone rang.  It was Andy at the police headquarters, asking for her help.  Jack went into leader mode, saying he’d drop Owen at the hospital, Ianto and Toshiko at the central server building, and asking Rhys to take Gwen at the police station.

“That is just a diversion,” came a soft voice from the side of the SUV.

“Luna?” Ianto exclaimed and hurried over to her.

“It’s why those three locations were selected.  What better place than a hospital for your doctor, a server building for your technical genius, and the police station for your former police officer?”

Jack crossed his arms, trying not to be defensive.  She was right.  He hadn’t realized how perfectly it was lined up.

Ianto looked at Luna.  “Did you have a vision?”  He pulled out a handkerchief and gently pressed it under her nose, where a small trickle of blood could be seen.

“I did.  It was terrible, but it was as clear as any vision I’ve ever had, which means we can still do something.”  She smiled at his fussing.  “Don’t worry.  Draco can give me a potion, later.”

“What did you see?” Ianto asked, preempting Jack’s impatience.

“There are fifteen explosive devices planted across the city,” she said calmly.

“Bloody, fucking hell!” Owen shouted.

“Can you take me to them?” Ianto was already three steps ahead, grabbing the keys from Jack’s pocket and walking to the SUV.

“Of course.  I was thinking… portkeys?” she smiled at Ianto.

“You read my mind.”  He grinned as he opened the back of the SUV and reached for the two dozen plastic buckets left over from the alien goo samples they’d taken during a rift alert a few days prior.  He grabbed the lot and turned to Jack.  “They’re all traps.  And you know the hub certainly is,” he looked concerned.

“I was the only one who could ever control him,” Jack said calmly.  “That’s why the Time Agency partnered us.”

“Did you just say Time Agency?” Rhys asked, incredulous.

Jack sighed.  “Gwen, Owen, and Tosh will take the rift alerts.  Be careful.  Luna’s right.  They’re too deliberate not to be traps.  Gwen, get the disaster preparedness team ready for a possible series of explosions.”  He turned to Ianto and kissed his cheek, surprising the younger man.  “You be careful, too.”

Luna’s eyes were large and full of unshed tears.  “We will probably not be able to get them all.  I did not see where they all are.  I just know how many.  We’ll get as many as we can.”

“Just do what you can.  We’re better off than we were, not knowing about them.”  Jack reached over and kissed her on the cheek.  “Thank you.”

She nodded.  Ianto gave him a nod as well, and took Luna’s hand.  She disapparated with him to the first site she had seen.

As Gwen dealt with the panic at the police station, Owen wrangled a hoix and Tosh took care of some mouthy grim reaper wanna-be’s, Luna and Ianto made their way from one site to another, across the city.  As soon as they arrived, she created a portkey as he extracted the device from whatever hiding place it was in.

They worked quickly, and managed to find twelve devices in an hour’s time.  Luna became agitated that she could not see where the last three devices were.

“Luna, you know you can’t force it,” Ianto said, hugging her.  “Let’s go back to the hub.  We can disable John, if Jack hasn’t, already, and maybe you can have a quiet moment to locate the others, if we can’t get the information from him.”

She nodded.  “I think there is more going on than we think, Nif.”

“Yeah.”  Ianto looked thoughtful.  “Look.  You know that wrist strap Jack wears?”  At her nod, he continued, “Well, John has one, as well.  We need to get it away from him, if we can.”

Luna nodded.  She took his arm, this time, and they apparated to the hub, just inside the cog wheel door.

“ _Stupefy_!” Ianto shouted, sending a stunning spell at John Hart as he attempted to tamper with the rift.

“ _Relashio_!” Luna cried, releasing Jack from the manacles that suspended him above one of the retention pools.  He dropped to the ground and managed to keep his feet.

John had managed to dodge the spell, though it did wing him.  He staggered to his feet with a shocked expression.  “Eye Candy – you’re a wizard?” he seemed shaken.

“ _Accio_ wrist strap,” Ianto commanded, and John shouted in pain.

“Stop!  Stop!  It’s bonded to my skin,” John shouted.  “And it’s wired to explode.”

Ianto turned and began making another portkey.  Within seconds, he nodded to Luna.  I’ll detach it, you summon it, and then we’ll both shield it until it’s in the bucket and leaves.

She nodded.

It all happened so fast, Jack could only marvel.  He was reminded that these were two members of Dumbledore’s Army, which had run a guerilla resistance movement from within the walls of Hogwarts for more than half a year.  They worked together seamlessly, improvising with meticulous care and unflappable self-possession. 

With deadly precision, Ianto separated the wrist strap, ripping it from John’s arm using the _relashio_ spell, even as the former time agent screamed in pain.  Luna used the _accio_ spell, and it was flying across the hub even as Ianto wrapped it in a shielding charm.  Luna added another shield as it landed in the bucket. 

The device was in the process of exploding within the bubble of the shield charm as the portkey activated.  Thankfully, the spell held until the wrist strap was gone. 

John was on his knees, holding his arm and groaning in pain.  Ianto sent another stunning spell at him. 

Jack reached out and wrapped an arm around Ianto.  “Enough of that.  Looks like he was being coerced.  We need to get some information from him.”  After a moment, he asked, “Did you get them all?”

Ianto shook his head.  “We got twelve of the fifteen,” he said, moving to the rift manipulator and undoing the tinkering John had been doing to it.  He looked at Luna.  “Any luck seeing any of the others?”

She shook her head.  “It’s gone dark.  I think maybe that’s as much as I was meant to meddle.”

Jack wrapped her up in a hug.  “It’s a lot, Luna.  That’s twelve bombs that won’t be hurting people, tonight.”

“I’ll try questioning Hart,” Ianto said, glaring at the former time agent.

Jack put a hand on his chest, stopping him.  “Let me try.  Get something to bandage his arm, please.”

Ianto went down into the med bay and retrieved a disinfecting solution, healing salve and bandages.  As Jack attempted to probe John’s memory for the location of the bombs, Luna healed his arm as much as she could, then cleaned and bandaged it.  Jack called out each location and Ianto verified each one they had already found. 

When Jack named a site Ianto and Luna had not visited, Ianto immediately disapparated.  Luna made another portkey, and it was ready when Ianto returned.  He dropped the bomb into the bucket and it disappeared.

“Where?” Jack asked.

“Center of the sun,” Ianto smirked.

Jack named several more places.  Ianto disapparated again, and Luna made another portkey.  Within seconds, the hub was rocked by the reverberations of two separate blasts.  Jack and Luna looked at each other, horrified, but then Ianto apparated.  It was clear he’d almost been caught in the blast, as the force of the shock wave was still impacting his body.  Backward momentum had him colliding with the base of the water tower before crumpling to the ground with a whimper.

“Ianto!”  Jack ran to him. 

Ianto groaned.  “The timer had one second on it when I apparated.  I barely had time to disapparate, again.”

“Are you hurt?” Jack asked.

“I think my shoulder’s dislocated.”

Jack went to his side and took his arm.  “Ready?”

Ianto seemed to steel himself, and gave a shaky nod.  Jack jerked his shoulder back into place, causing him to let out a long, throaty scream.

Luna hugged him and then pointed her wand at him, healing his bruises and trying to alleviate the some of the pain.

Jack toggled on his comms.  “Everyone?  Report!”

Everyone checked in, confirming they were okay.

Ianto moved to Tosh’s monitors.  “Two explosions.  Damn.  The M4 link road’s been taken out, again.”

“Shit!  They just got the bloody thing reopened, after the cell!” Owen exclaimed.

“The other one?” Jack put a hand on Ianto’s back.

Ianto stared for a moment.  “Just south of the city.  Tosh?”

“Yes?”

“Check the servers for Turnmill.  The second blast was practically on the grounds of the plant.”

Within seconds, Tosh’s voice came over the comms.  “It looks like the systems that serve the plant have all gone offline.”

“What do you need, to get them back online?” Jack asked.

“Give me a moment,” she said.  After several minutes, she made a frustrated noise.  “I can’t do anything from here,” she said.  “I’ll head that way and assess the damage.”

Just then, a high-pitched signal pierced the air.  It was crippling.

“What the hell is that?” shouted Gwen.

When the sound finally abated, Ianto looked at the screens.  “Weevils loose in the lower corridors,” Ianto said.

Jack ran for the med bay.

“The streets are flooded with weevils,” Tosh said a few minutes later, her voice shaky.  “There’s no way I can make it past them to get to the power plant.”

Ianto turned to Luna.  “Do you think you got a good enough look at the central server station in your vision to get to Tosh?”

Luna nodded.  “I did.  Tell her I’ll meet her in the lobby.  Show me the power plant.”

As Jack instructed Tosh to go to the lobby, Ianto pulled up a floor plan of the power station, including pictures of the area Tosh would need to access.

Luna nodded.  “Be careful,” she said.  “There’s more happening than this.”

Ianto nodded, and she disapparated.  He heard Tosh give a small squeak over the comms as Luna appeared by her side.

In less than a minute, they had arrived at the plant and Tosh was speaking to a technician who had refused to leave her post.  A few minutes more and she was in their system.  “I can do this,” she said, her voice confident.

Jack had grabbed a handful of weevil spray canisters and tranquilizer hypo’s from the med bay.  He began setting them out.  John groaned on the floor, beginning to come around. 

Ianto stunned him again.

“Remind me not to make you angry,” Jack smirked.  He took Ianto’s arm.  “He didn’t even try to shield his thoughts.  I really think he was being coerced.”

“Coerced by whom?” Ianto wondered.  Taking his wand, he waved it at John.  “Legilimens."

Within seconds, he staggered back.  Jack reached out and took his elbow to help him keep his balance.  “Jack,” he said, wide-eyed.  “It’s Gray.”

“What?”

“John found him.  Thought he was saving him, but…  The creatures that took Gray, what they did to him… changed him,” he paused at the stricken look on Jack’s face.  “He got John to trust him, then forced him into this… plot.”  He sighed, taking Jack’s hand.  “He thinks that Gray is here, somewhere.  That he released the weevils.”

And as though they were demons summoned from the depths, the three weevils from the lower levels were there, surrounding them, snarling.  Ianto sent a _levicorpus_ spell at each of them.

Jack sprayed each one, and Ianto followed with the tranquilizers. 

“Can you take them back down to the cells, and then go get Owen?” Jack asked.

Ianto kissed his cheek and then floated the sleeping weevils back down to the lower levels.  From there, he apparated to the hospital.

***

As Ianto was heading down with the weevils, a flash of golden light appeared in the hub.  Jack looked on, stunned.

“Jack.”

“Gray?”

“I never stopped believing.  I always knew we’d find each other again,” Gray said, striding towards Jack and then enveloping him in an embrace. 

Jack held his brother, fighting the emotion that was rising.  “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“Sorry’s not good enough,” Gray’s voice was suddenly hard and cold as he stabbed Jack with an obscenely large hunting knife.  Jack fell to the ground, stunned.

“I looked for you.  I searched for you, for years,” Jack sobbed as he fought the pain and tried desperately to keep the darkness at bay.  He pretended to flail in such a way that he toggled his comm back on.  “You were my first thought, every day.” 

“What are you expecting?” Gray asked, his voice contemptuous.  “A loving reunion?  Absolution?  For me to say, ‘It’s okay, Brother, I forgive you’?" he sneered.  "Those creatures, they live to torture.  They kept us just on the verge of life.  I’d lie there, hemmed in by corpses, praying to become one.  Because you.  Let go.  Of my hand.”

“If I could swap with you, I would.”  Jack’s despair was plain, even as he was fading.

“I believed you’d come.  But you never did.  How long before you gave up?

“What do you want from me?” Jack breathed.

“I want you to suffer,” Gray's rage was savage.

He reached down and grabbed Jack as he gasped his last, but a popping sound distracted him as Ianto apparated back with Owen.  He ducked just in time to miss the body bind spell that Ianto threw at him.  He dove behind the water tower and quickly used his vortex manipulator to escape. 

A wizard!  Well, he knew how to deal with that particular kind of vermin…

***

Ianto ran to Jack and knelt beside him.  This made at least three times he’d died today.  He looked over at John, who was beginning to stir, again.  “Please don’t stun me again, Eye Candy,” he rasped.  Groaning, he sat up.  “I may be able to reverse the signal and get the weevils to go back home, again.”

“Then do it,” Ianto growled.

Owen helped Ianto carry Jack down to the autopsy bay.  Ianto sat up on the table, cradling Jack.  He looked exhausted.

“You all right, mate?” Owen asked.

Ianto nodded.  “More magic than I’ve used in a really long time,” he muttered.  “I’ll be all right.”

Just as John reversed the signal and sent the weevils back underground, Luna arrived with Toshiko.  She put her wand behind her ear and wandered down the steps.  She conjured two goblets and performed the _aguamenti_ spell.  Handing one of the goblets to Ianto, she raised the other to her lips.

“You were amazing today, Luna,” Ianto said quietly. 

“I’ll second that,” Owen said.  “Any time you want a different job, you can come work with us.”

“Agreed,” Tosh smiled.

Luna beamed.

“Are you all right?” Ianto asked her.

“Tired,” she admitted.  “And I’ll need a potion to soothe my mind from the vision.  But I’m fine.”

They sat and rested for an hour or so until Jack revived.  As he recovered, Owen and Luna left them to go watch Tosh assess the damage around the city as John watched Myfanwy fly around the hub until it was time for her to go hunt.

“Where’s Gray?” Jack asked, once he was coherent enough.

“We don’t know.  Tosh is working on the alarms, so if he tries to show up here again, we’ll have some sort of alert.”  Ianto pulled Jack close.  “I’m so sorry I left you here to face that, alone.”

“He blames me,” Jack whispered.

“Of course he does,” Ianto replied quietly.  “His mental and emotional development were arrested at the age of ten.  Any ten year-old would agree with him.”  He kissed Jack on the temple.  “Doesn’t make him right.”

An alarm sounded.

“Well isn’t that sweet?” Gray sneered.

Ianto and Jack moved at the same time, jumping down from opposite sides of the table and facing Jack’s brother, who now had an ugly looking weapon pointed at them.

No, it was pointed at Ianto.

“Didn’t know you had a wizard infestation, Brother,” Gray said.  “Let me help you with that.”

He pulled the trigger in the split second before Ianto shouted, “ _Expelliarmus_!”  A pulse of energy moved through the air, rippling and surging and distorting the air like heat waves.  It hit Ianto full in the chest, hurling him back into the wall.

But the spell worked, and the gun went flying.  John caught it.  Jack was rounding the table, going to Ianto, knowing his people would take care of Gray.  But in the near silence of the hub, a single word could be heard, muttered by a low, cold voice he did not recognize.

“ _Crucio_.”

Gray fell to the ground, writhing in pain, his screams almost inhuman.

Ianto was on his feet and running up the stairs.  In the next instant, he was beside Luna.  He reached out and wrapped his hand around her wand hand.  “That’s enough, Moon-bug.”

Luna released the spell and lowered her wand, turning to Ianto and beginning to cry into his chest. 

Gray collapsed to the ground.  John and Owen were there instantly, wrestling Gray to his feet.  John handed Owen the gun and took Gray’s vortex manipulator.  Owen put the gun down and put a pair of zip tie cuffs on Gray.  Then John shoved him towards the door to the lower level, causing the younger man to stumble.  Before they could catch him, he stepped on the portkey Luna had created, earlier.

Gray disappeared.

John and Owen gaped.  Jack did not even have time to process what had just happened.  Gray had stumbled onto a portkey.  He had been sent to the center of the sun.  Jack felt a bit dizzy as he turned to Ianto, who was looking at him with pain and regret.  “Jack,” he whispered.

Luna leaned back in Ianto’s arms.   Her nose was bleeding again. 

“Luna?” Jack asked, concerned.

Luna looked up at Ianto.  “He hurt you,” she cried.

“What did you see?” Ianto asked.  He was so pale he was practically blue.

“We’ll need to contain it,” she said.  She pulled a galleon out of her robes and muttered a spell over it.  She looked at Jack.  “Let’s get him back down there, before it begins.”

“Before what begins?” Jack asked, a feeling of dread rushing through his belly.  He took Ianto by the arm and guided the younger man back down to the autopsy bay.  It was strange, because Ianto was not resisting.  In fact, he seemed a bit dazed.  “You all right?” he asked.

“Feel strange,” Ianto murmured.

At the bottom of the steps, he collapsed.

“Stay back!” Luna commanded.  It was all Jack could do, to make himself obey.  She began muttering an incantation.

Ianto lay flat on his back.  A low moan quickly became a throaty roar of pain and anguish as a fine, violet and indigo colored mist slowly rose from his form, seeming to seep from his body.  No, whatever was happening, something vital was being violently torn from every cell.

It took all of Luna’s skill and concentration to capture the entirety of the cloud of mist within an encapsulating charm.  Another reinforced it, and she looked up to see Draco, paler than usual, standing at the top of the steps, his wand still pointing at the captured cloud.

“What did this?” he asked, his voice rough.  "What could... do this?"

Ianto moaned, and Luna nodded for Jack and Owen to put him up on the table.  She conjured a soft mattress for him.  “We need help,” she said to Draco.

She muttered something over the galleon again, and Hermione apparated a few moments later.  She spotted the cloud.  “Oh, Merlin!  Is that...?”

Luna interrupted her.  “We need Kingsley here, now.  And Professor McGonagall and Madame Pomfrey.”  She turned to Draco as Hermione took out her galleon to summon Neville to the Ministry.  “Who else?”

He stared at the cloud of mist that they had tethered to one of the rails in the med bay.  “Prunella Metcalf.  And Harry.  Thirteen would be ideal.  The more powerful, the better.”

“I’ll bring him, and summon some others,” Hermione said, putting her galleon away.

As soon as Hermione and Draco disapparated, Luna went to the table and took Ianto’s hand.  “How do you feel?”

“Strange,” he said weakly.  “Wrong.”

She nodded.  “We’ll do what we can, I promise.”

“What was that?” Jack asked.

John came forward, holding the gun up.  “It’s a Salem 2000,” he said, looking remorseful.  “A witch-killer.”

“What?” Jack asked, his eyes flying wide.

“I ran into it in the 58th century, after you left the agency.  There was a resurgence of magic-bashing in one of the backwater quadrants.  Witch-hunts.  Outright murder of anyone showing any power at all.  They developed special weaponry,” he held up the gun.  “This… _thing_ separates a witch or wizard from their magic.”

Jack stared.  “You mean _that_ ,” he looked up at the cloud of violet and indigo mist.  It looked like a nebula the Doctor had shown to Rose, one time.  It was beautiful.  As he looked at it, a golden star winked at him from the heart of the cloud.  “That’s Ianto’s magic?”

“It is,” Luna said quietly, running a hand through Ianto’s hair as he looked up at her, crying.  According to her vision, it had been imperative to contain his magic.  But she wasn’t sure why, considering what else she had seen.

“It hurts,” Ianto whispered.

Jack turned back to Ianto and took his hand.  “It’s going to be all right,” he said.  “You’re going to be fine.”

“My magic.  I can’t feel my magic,” he was crying, too weak to panic.  "It’s gone."

“It’ll be all right,” Jack said.

“Jack, a wizard can’t,” he gasped.  “I can’t live without my magic.”  His eyes shut.  “And wouldn’t want to, anyway.”

“Don’t say that, Ianto.”

Luna let go of his hand as witches and wizards began to arrive.  She needed to explain. 

Ianto looked up at Jack.  He placed his palm on Jack’s cheek.

“It’s all my fault,” Jack choked, leaning into Ianto’s touch.

“No it’s not.”

“Don’t speak.  Save your breath.”

“Jack,” Ianto breathed.  He drew in another breath and looked at Jack, holding his gaze.  “I love you.”

“Don’t,” Jack said, panicking.  That Ianto was finally saying it made this too real.  It meant that Ianto truly believed he was going to die. 

“Can’t help it,” Ianto said, managing to sound impish, despite the circumstances. 

“No, that’s not what I meant.  It’s just that… you’ve been fighting saying it, for so long.  That you’re saying it now…”

“I’m dying, Jack,” Ianto met his gaze steadily.  “And now I know.  I should have told you _every_ damned day.  I should have let you know you were loved.  So much.”  He sighed.  “And it doesn’t even matter, that you don’t…”

“Ianto, that is so not true.”

Ianto squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head.  When he reopened them, he looked into Jack’s face.  “It was good, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Jack was crying, now.

“A thousand years’ time, you won’t remember me,” he said.  Before Jack could deny it, he went on.  “And that’s okay, Jack.  It’s all right.  I understand.”

Jack’s heart shattered.  He knew what it cost Ianto to absolve him, in that way.  “Ianto,” he sobbed.  “Ianto, stay with me.”  He picked up his lover and was holding him against his chest.  “Please don’t leave me, Ianto,” he pleaded, his voice desperate.  “I don’t want to live forever,” he whispered into Ianto’s hair.  “I don’t want to face a world without you.  Please don’t make me.”

Ianto gasped, and then sighed.  His last breath carried the most sacred prayer he knew.

“Jack.” 

***

**Author's Note:**

> I've lifted a lot of dialogue from Exit Wounds, and a bit from Children of Earth.


End file.
